Rowland Clegg-Hill, 3rd Viscount Hill

Rowland Clegg-Hill, 3rd Viscount Hill (5 December 1833 – 30 March 1895), known as Rowland Hill until 1872, was a British Conservative politician.

Background

Born Rowland Clegg Hill, at Hawkstone Hall, Shropshire, he was the son of Rowland Hill, 2nd Viscount Hill, and Anne, daughter of Joseph Clegg. In 1874 he assumed by Royal licence the additional surname of Clegg before that of Hill.

Military Service

Hill was commissioned as cornet in the North Shropshire Yeomanry Cavalry in 1853, and captain in 1866. He continued to serve within the unified Shropshire Yeomanry regiment formed by amalgamation in 1872, and was promoted major in 1875. He resigned in 1879.

Political career

Hill sat as Conservative Member of Parliament for Shropshire North between 1857 and 1865. In 1875 he succeeded his father in the viscountcy and entered the House of Lords. His ability to sit in the Lords was curtailed in later years by ill health and being adjudged bankrupt in July 1894 with debts of almost £250,000.

He was also a Deputy-Lieutenant and J.P. for the county of Shropshire.

Sporting life

The Hon R.C. Hill succeeded his father as Master of the Shropshire Fox Hounds, and refounded the Hawkstone Otter Hunt Club in 1870, becoming its Master and continuing until 1891. The Hawkstone Otter Hunt was originally started about 1800 by the 1st Viscount and maintained within the family.

Personal life

Hill was twice married.

He married firstly, in London, Mary Madax, daughter of William Madax of Gosport, Hampshire, on 3 May 1855. Before their marriage she worked as his mother's still room maid and for some time the marriage was unacknowledged. She died in 1874, having borne him two sons, Rowland Richard and Francis William Clegg-Hill, later respectively 4th and 5th Viscounts Hill.

He married secondly, in 1876, Isabella Elizabeth Wynn, daughter of Spencer Bulkeley Wynn, 3rd Baron Newborough, of Rug, Caernarvonshire, who survived him, dying in 1908. The couple had one daughter and three sons, the eldest of whom, Charles Rowland Clegg-Hill, later succeeded as 6th Viscount Hill.

Lord Hill died at Hawkstone Hall in March 1895, aged 61, and was buried in the family vault at the parish church in Hodnet. He was succeeded in his titles by his eldest son, Rowland Richard Clegg-Hill.